Ben Abell's name and voice are familiar to many St. Louis radio listeners. Abell, who has taught meteorology at Saint Louis University since 1962, provides weather reports for local radio stations KMOX and KWMU. Abell offers Grand Connections readers his Top 10 "Significant Meteorological Events of the Century."

By Ben Abell

1. Cyclone (Hurricane), East Pakistan, Nov. 12 to 13 1970. An estimated 300,000 people were killed, mostly by a storm surge as high as 30 feet, which drove the waters of the Bay of Bengal over low elevation offshore islands and the coastal delta.

2. 1927 Lower Mississippi Valley Flood, March through May 1927. Although flooding began in January upstream from Cairo, Ill., on both the Mississippi River watershed and Ohio River watershed, it was the flooding on the lower Mississippi from Missouri and Illinois southward to the Gulf of Mexico that stands as the greatest natural disaster the United States has ever known. Nearly 1 million people were forced out of their homes. The Red Cross fed 700,000 refugees for months. The flood had an enormous cultural, social and political impact on the United States.

3. 1968 to 1973 Sahel (Sub Sahara) Drought. A large expanse of semi-arid land between the Sahara Desert and Equatorial Africa was transformed into a desert, due to below-normal rainfall over a six-year period and over-grazing by livestock belonging to a largely nomadic population. An estimated 100,000 people perished due to famine.

4. Hurricane Andrew, Aug. 24, 1992. Although only 25 people died in South Florida, with four additional fatalities on the Louisiana Coast two days later, 100,000 people were left homeless. Property damage in Florida was estimated at $25 billion, with another $400 million on the Gulf Coast outside of Florida.

5. 1993 Flood in the Missouri and Mid-Upper Mississippi Valleys. The flooding affected one-third of the United States and produced an estimated $18 billion in property and infrastructure damage. The low death rate of 52 was due to flood control technology, the stage forecasts by the National Weather Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the magnificent efforts of emergency first responders and the state emergency management agencies.

6. Galveston, Texas, Hurricane, Sept. 8 to 9, 1900. An estimated 6,000 souls on Galveston Island (7,200, when surrounding coastal regions are included) died. Most of the victims drowned when hurricane winds drove a storm surge over much of Galveston Island and surrounding coastal areas.

7. Tri-State Tornado: Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, March 18, 1925. 695 people were killed by this single tornado, which was on the ground for 219 miles with an average width between one-fourth and one-half miles. At several locations, the width expanded to a mile. The forward speed of the tornado averaged 62 miles per hour. The tornado originated near Redford in Southeast Missouri and traveled toward the east-northeast before lifting beyond Princeton, Ind.

8. March 13 to 15, 1993, Southeast and Eastern United States, Gale and Blizzard. Wind in some areas exceeded hurricane strength (74 mph). The storm produced an unprecedented winter storm surge on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Heavy snow extended from Northern Alabama and Northern Georgia, northward to the Upper Ohio Valley, eastward across the Appalachians to New England, and southward to the Carolinas. Snow depth exceeded two feet, and drifts exceeded 10 feet over much of the region.

9. Jumbo Tornado Outbreak, April 3 to 4, 1974. One hundred and forty-eight tornadoes struck a 13-state area of the United States between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians. Three hundred and fifteen people died, and 5,500 were injured. Although individual tornadoes have killed more people and inflicted more concentrated damage, this outbreak was unprecedented in terms of the area affected.

10. 1997-1998 El Nino. The strongest El Nino of the century had a major impact on U.S. weather, ranging from good effects (mild winter in the central United States and a relatively inactive 1997 Atlantic hurricane season) to destructive effects (active hurricane season in the Pacific in and near Mexico and Central America, and a cool wet stormy winter and spring in the Southeastern United States). An even greater impact was drought in Indonesia, Mexico and Central America. Fires that followed the drought brought smoke and negative health effects to populations hundreds of miles removed from fire areas.

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